The Morning After: YouTube quietly adds free, ad-supported movies

Wii U allegedly hacked, Nintendo addresses would-be pirates (updated)

While some people associate the word "jailbreaking" with prison riots or smartphone hacking, the most mainstream of cracking subcultures also takes on video game consoles. A mod chip developer known as WiiKey is now claiming to have reverse engineered the Wii U's disk encryption, making it possible to play "backed up" copies of games via a USB drive. The group says its "WiikeU" optical drive emulator is region free and compatible with all Wii U console models. So far the hacking brood has yet to furnish any proof of its claims, but Nintendo is very much aware of the situation.

Nintendo is aware that a hacking group claims to have compromised Wii U security; however, we have no reports of illegal Wii U games nor unauthorized applications playable on the system while in Wii U mode. Nintendo continuously monitors all threats to its products' security and will use technology and will take the necessary legal steps to prevent the facilitation of piracy.

If in fact the WiiKeU is real, Nintendo could potentially counter the exploit with a system software update. Should such a turn of events take place, we could very well be looking at a return bout of console makers versus hackers. In response to Nintendo's statement on this matter, WiiKey posted a quote from the company on its website followed by four cryptic lines of code.

Update: In response to our inquiry, Nintendo offered us ... exactly the same boilerplate response it offered everyone else. Oh well! Can't blame us for trying.